Auricular Point Acupressure To Improve Sleep Quality Among Taiwanese Insomnia Postpartum Women
Title: Auricular Point Acupressure To Improve Sleep Quality Among Taiwanese Insomnia Postpartum Women
- Understand Taiwanese postpartum women sleep problem
- understand the relationship between demographic data and quality of sleep of postpartum women
- Identify the effectiveness of auricular point acupressure for improving postpartum women's sleep
Design: This is a non-randomized controlled trial (non-RCT) study.
Sample: Sixty postpartum women reporting poor quality of sleep were recruited in one postpartum centre (doing-the-month centre) in Northern Taiwan from February 2013 to June 2013.
Methods: This study adopted a quasi-experimental two-group pretest-post-test design and a convenience sampling method.
Implementation Strategies: The acupoints selected for APA included three acupoints for improving sleep (i.e., shenmen, heart and kidney acupoints). Every week change ear to tape APA. APA was administered by a trained registered nurse.
Results: After 21 days of APA intervention, the experimental group (n=30) experienced significantly less insomnia than did the control group (5.83±2.31 vs 8.16±2.17, t=-4.11, p=.001) measured by Pittburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI).
Conclusion/Implications for nursing practice: The preliminary findings of this study showed improvement in quality of sleep suggesting that APA may be a promising treatment for women with insomnia. Nurses interested in complementary therapies should be encouraged to obtain training in APA and to apply it in postpartum care.
Keywords: auricular point acupressure, traditional Chinese medicine, postpartum insomnia women